Agents' Summary of Business Conditions - February 2011

• Retail sales continued to grow, albeit moderately, with some recovery of spending that had been lost as a result of the bad weather.
• The Agents’ score for annual growth in turnover for consumer services had slipped further, despite the improvement in the weather in January.
• Activity in the housing market remained subdued, and prices continued to fall.
• Investment intentions had risen again on the month, with a few more reports of plans to increase capacity.
• The annual growth rate of goods export values rose further still, helped by world demand and past declines in sterling.
• There had been modest growth in services turnover, but there was still some downward pressure on fees for professional and financial services.
• Manufacturing output growth had also risen somewhat, probably reflecting robust overseas demand.
• Activity in the construction sector had been disrupted by the weather. Underlying activity was thought to be broadly similar to the level a year earlier.
• Large firms reported that credit was available, but small firms continued to face difficulties in securing loans.
• Employment intentions pointed to modest growth in jobs in the private sector over the next six months.
• According to contacts, capacity utilisation was around normal in manufacturing, while there was rather more spare capacity in services.
• Labour costs were growing at a moderate pace on a year earlier, reflecting both improvements in productivity, but also some degree of recognition of past inflation.
• Flooding in Australia had caused further increases in the prices of some raw materials.
• Some of the past increase in the cost of raw materials had been passed on in manufacturing output prices.
• The annual rate of consumer goods and services inflation remained elevated.

Agents' summary of business conditions - February 2011

• Agents' scores (xlsx)
• Definitions for the Agents’ scores
• Response to consultation on changes to Agents' scores